side effect of holding memorial service for your ancestors

Even if you haven’t felt anything in holding a memorial service for your ancestors according to some conventional Buddhist method, when you write down on Tanzaku on your own, make up a memorial tablet for them, and start to devote Kotodama（言霊） “I Ka Shi Te I Ta Da I Te A Ri Ga To U Go Za I Ma Su“-Thank you so much for keeping me/us alive-and incense sticks to them, based on gratitude, you are sure to feel something different at the bottom of your heart. Some people feel delight rising from inside, and others feel physical languor, though the number of the latter is small.

even if S+V たとえSがVするとしても

memorial service 供養

ancestor 先祖

according to A Aに従って

conventional 従来の

method 方法

on one’s own 自分自身で

memorial tablet 霊位

devote 捧げる

keep A alive Aを生かしておく

incense stick 線香

gratitude 感謝の気持ち

be sure to~ きっと〜するだろう

bottom 底

delight 喜び

languor だるさ

These phenomena are a proof that this way of doing does have practical power and reach the spiritual worlds. If you hold memorial services, don’t you think it better to do it in the effectual way than in an ineffectual way ?

phenomena 現象

proof 証拠

way of doing やり方

practical 実践的な

reach 届く

effectual 効果のある

ineffectual 効果のない

If a person who has never held such services for his ancestors before starts to do it, he might feel physical languor. This is because many ancestors have been waiting for offsprings to hold memorial services for many years, and their spiritual waves get in tune with the practitioner’s. You can regard this as a proof that the person and his ancestral spirits begin to communicate with each other. Ideally speaking, such a person should keep on holding the services for them out of pity and “melt” and “digest” the languor, but when he feels painful in doing it, it is no problem to stop.

physical 肉体的な

wait for A to- Aが〜するのを待つ

offspring 子孫

wave 波動

get in tune with A Aと同調する

practioner 実践者

regard A as B AをBとみなす

proof 証拠

each other お互い

ideally speaking 理想を言えば

keep on ~ing 〜し続ける

out of pity 哀れみから

melt 溶かす

digest 消化する

painful 苦しい

This is a great thing actually. In the case where you hold a memorial service in the form of sealing up spirits by chanting ,say, Heart of Great Perfect Wisdom Sutra（般若心経）, if you stop it in the middle of the service, you can’t pacify bad effects by the spirits.

actually 実際には

seal up A Aを封じる

chant 唱える

say 例えば

in the middle of A Aの途中で

pacify 納める

effect 影響

Why would there be no harm even if you stopped holding services based on gratitude? Because you are just trying to thank them. Your gratitude to some wandering spirits give awareness to them. Even if you stop it, it just stops there. That’s all.

harm 害

try to~ 〜しようとする

thank 感謝する

awareness 気づき

Also, by setting up the Tanzaku functioning as Yorishiro（寄り代）, where spirits come temporally and rest, you can avoid bad effects on your physical body. This way of doing means a lot compared with the conventional ways of holding memorial services. The Tanzaku, which is a substitute for the physical body of a doer, receives and is obsessed by not only spirits of the dead but also some energy of those grudges from others towards you which you receive in your social life or the energy of distress you have.

function 機能する

temporally 一時的に

rest 休む

avoid 避ける

mean a lot 大きな意味がある

compared with A Aと比べて

substitute 代用物

doer 行う人

accept 受け入れる

not only A but also B AだけでなくBも

the dead 死者

grudge 恨み

others 他人

social life 社会生活

distress 苦悩

There has been a secret ritual called “Hitogata Barai”（人型祓い）in ancient Shinto, in which by giving out your breath toward a paper cut out in the form of a man, you transfer your misfortune to the paper and purify it. Your Tanzaku functions like this. A memorial service using Tanzaku can be said to be a superior method to Hitogata Barai which acts on spirits temporally in that instead of purifying the spirits, the former makes spirits relieved and sublimates them, in other words, sends them up to heaven.